Humans were not responsible for megafauna collapse – at least in South America
Megafauna collapse in South America
The end of the last ice ages marked a global decline of megafauna and, often coinciding, a rise of Homo sapiens. The reason for megafauna decline (climate change or human hunting) is controversial. While there are places like Australia where humans seem to be clear causes for the decline of megafauna, South America may work as a counterexample. Here humans arrived at about 12 800 years before present, while glaciation had receded considerably earlier (about 19 000 years before present). This difference in timing allowed Rozas-Davila and colleagues to exclude the impact of humans as a cause for megafauna decline at least for their study site (lake Pacucha, Peru).
